Jonathan's blog

1. Remember E.T. cereal?  I saved the box tops and sent them in for a free copy of the E.T. record and storybook with Michael Jackson reading.  Don't know for sure, but I've heard it's worth some significant cheddar these days (or at least it was).
2. I used to get my dad to read to me the football scores out of the paper before I could read, and I could spell Pittsburgh in the second grade.  I quizzed Elliot today, and I can confirm that the legacy lives on.
3. I buy just about all of my clothes at thrift stores.
4. I've been to Europe 7 times including a couple months during the summer of 1998
5. In middle school, if you asked me what I was going to do when I grew up, I would say play basketball in Europe.  At least I was realistic enough to know the NBA was out of the question.  As late as freshman year in high school I would have said a missionary.
6. I was valedictorian of both my high school and college classes.  That just proves I knew how to study for tests.
7. My cholesterol is steadily rising.  One of these days I'll get serious about exercising regularly and watching what I eat.
8. I used to collect Disney records at thrift stores.  I've still got them.
9. In 7th grade our language arts class had some strange unused cabinets on one wall of the classroom.  I organized a campaign where every once in a while during quiet study time someone would get up and nonchalantly walk across the room and hide one of our text books (which were stored in the classroom) in one of the cabinets.
10. A high school health teacher used to excessively use the word "essentially".  I started keeping a tally during every class period.  As far as I remember, it was something like ~ 20 per class.
11. Pulp Fiction is my favorite movie
12. In the mid to late 90's I was into filming indie rock concerts and trading bootleg recordings.  I've got hundreds of audio and video tapes in my basement.
13. As a kid I was very self-conscious about the size of my ears.  At some point I tried to tape them back during the night hoping it would "train" them not to stick out so much.
14. I've always been a big fan of music...first kids music on vinyl, then tape recordings of America's Top 40 with Casey Kasem (recorded using a tape recorder placed next to the radio speaker).  My first album was Thriller, purchased for me by my mom at the grocery store.
15. One of my best friends growing up was shot and killed in New Orleans while there as part of President Clinton's security.
16. My grandmother's grandfather's cousin was William McKinley, 25th president of the United States.  He was assassinated, and some family members subsequently changed their name to Canley.
17. My college jobs including library attendant (periodicals), dorm R.A., daycare employee, park maintenance/janitorial, and research in electro-optics and lasers
18. In high school I was quoted in USA Today regarding the 2 Live Crew controversy.  The reporter called our school seeking a few students to interview, and the principal picked me.  I said that I had heard about the controversy in a news report on MTV and that I thought the publicity created by trying to ban/censor it would used just sell more of the records.
19. Once in high school I was called up on stage to receive one of the top awards for a multi-school math competition I competed in.  I was quite surprised because I didn't think I had done too well on the test.  Turns out, there was another Jonathan Moore there, and he was the one who scored well.
20. As a freshman at Lipscomb, late one Saturday night, some buddies and I rearranged the letters on a sign for an apartment complex so that on Sunday morning it read "See a queer inside eat 1200 ft feces" on one side and on the other side "DLU rules"
21. Once while at Lipscomb Lisa and I were driving home from Central c of C and saw Evan Dando walking across the street and into a hotel.  I stopped the car, and Lisa got out and followed him into the hotel lobby and asked him if he wanted to come watch a movie with us in the Sewell dorm lobby (I think it was Taxi Driver).  He declined (with a blond hanging on his arm) but said it was a good movie.
22. Sometimes I feel strange working for Dow Chemical since most of life I have considered myself an environmentalist.
23. If you see me around town with a Bluetooth piece in my ear, it's not because I'm expecting to make or receive a phone call.  It's because I'm listening to the One Year Bible or a podcast like You Look Nice Today, This American Life, The Ricky Gervais Show, Slate's Political Gabfest, Left Right and Center, This Week in Tech, On Point, Provoke Radio, various NPR podcasts, etc.
24. I read all of the Hardy Boys books when I was a kid
25. As a little kid, my favorite song to hear on the car radio on a long trip was Barry Manilow's Copacabana (they fell in love!)

P.S. I once attended night court in Nashville dressed as a woman.

Update 7 Feb 08:

P.P.S. The text book from one of my literature classes at Lipscomb referred to the book "Growing Up Absurd: Problems of Youth in the Organized Society" by Paul Goodman. It sounded intriguing. As summarized by Wikipedia "This book analyses the causes and effects of: "the disgrace of the Organised System, of semimonopolies, government, advertisers, etc., and the disaffection of the growing generation." While in grad school, I happened to find a copy at a thrift store and read it. It wasn't as interesting as I expected. When the unabomber Ted Kaczynski was arrested I happened to hear it singled out as a book that was in his possession.

P.P.P.S. In 1997 I attended the American Institute of Chemical Engineers annual meeting in Los Angeles. I went with a friend to watch a taping of The Drew Carey Show (my friend was a fan). While we stood in line to get in to the set, Julianna Margulies of ER fame walked by. Also, I was sporting a big beard at the time. Someone walking past pointed to me standing in line and said "Look, it's Ted Kaczynski!"

Slate's Today's Papers column from today contains several classics:

All of the papers allow the politicians to dominate the debate over the stimulus, with the NYT and WP (which is not a fan of the package) featuring House Minority Leader John Boehner's predictable criticism. "We cannot borrow and spend our way back to prosperity," he said (for the first time in eight years).

and

The WP reports that al-Qaida is peeved at Barack Obama. With polls showing the new president popular in the Muslim world, the terrorist group has resorted to hurling insults at him, even when they make no sense. The Post notes, "He was even blamed for the Israeli military assault on Gaza, which began and ended before he took office."

and

The NYT fronts a profile of Rahm Emanuel, the new White House chief of staff who, officials say, has calmed considerably. Ray Lahood, the new transportation secretary, says Emanuel has increasingly taken on the demeanor of his boss, whom he still teases...like when he told one congressman that he was too busy to talk and handed his phone to Obama.

and finally

The NYT Magazine's cover story tackles the age-old question: "What do women want?" But after 7,372 words and numerous clinical references to genital arousal, the answer is still frustratingly unclear. TP imagines that a similar article on what men want would be significantly shorter.

Tonight we watched Fireproof (2008,PG) (ScreenIt! Review).  From ScreenIt!:

A firefighter begins an experimental, 40-day program to try to save his marriage.

Last weekend small groups at our church started the associated 6-week study.  We missed the screening of the film because we were in D.C., so we caught up tonight.

Let me first say that Christian multimedia has come a long way.  That doesn't mean this was a masterpiece, but it was decent.  It reminded me more of a TV movie than one for the theaters, but that's OK.  I thought it was strongest in it's dead-pan, humorous bits.  Caleb's dad's description of God's holiness was somehow particularly effective too.  With divorce as prevalent as it is, this is obviously a worthwhile subject.  We thought it was a little funny that the task of salvaging the marriage appeared to be entirely on Caleb's shoulders.  I also thought it was a bit strange that Caleb seemed to have so many positive influences while Catherine apparently had none (until the white-haired lady got all up in her business).  The black female characters were a bit too one dimensional ("Uh huhhhh! Oh no he dit-unt!"), but at least Caleb's pal at work, Michael, was strong.

I give it 4 out of 5 for effort.

For family movie night this week we watched Honey, We Shrunk Ourselves (1997,PG) (ScreenIt! Review).  From ScreenIt!:

Two sets of parents are accidentally shrunk to miniature sizes and watch as their kids have a party.

This one, of course, doesn't take any unexpected turns...but it's enjoyable enough.  Lisa was shocked when I told her it was from 1997.  It seems like an earlier vintage.  Or maybe we're getting old.

I give it 3 out of 5.